Firefox Beta 29 for Android Out Now on Google Play

The new beta build contains a few new features and some bug fixes

It’s only been a few days since Mozilla launched Firefox version 28 for Android devices, and the company has announced that the first beta 29 is now available for download via Google Play Store.

Mozilla’s users are accustomed to the process of being delivering at least several beta versions of Firefox before a new stable iteration is pushed to the general public.

This would be the first beta version of Firefox 29, but Mozilla is likely to push several versions to Google Play before the final iteration goes live.

Anyway, let’s see what the first beta of Firefox 29 brings to Android users. First of all, new search suggestions are now available for the Bing search engine.

Mozilla has also added the ability to set up Firefox Sync by creating a Firefox account, along with multiple quick share buttons. Last but not least, new locales have been added, such as Hindi, Indonesian and Latvian.

Now that we’ve finished with the new features aimed at end users, let’s take a look at what the update has to offer in terms of developer tools.

Well, according to Mozilla, synthetic APKs are now enabled by default in the latest version of Firefox Beta 29, and there’s a new “box-sizing” implemented. In addition, the SharedWorker has been enabled by default, along with “Promises.”

CSS3 variables have been implemented in Firefox Beta 29, as well as the color picker widget, which can be accessed by using <input type=color>.

Another new feature included in the newest Firefox beta is the console object, which can be accessed via the Web Workers. The <input type=number> is now enabled.

There are a few changes as well, which are more or less noticeable. For example, performance has been improved by replacing throbber with a progress bar. In addition, navigator.plugins is no longer enumerable, due to user privacy.

It is also worth mentioning that favicon.ico decoding has been improved and Mozilla has fixed an issue with some devices running Android 4.3 or 4.4 that may experience playback problems with embedded h.264 video.

Only two known issues have been left to be fixed in future versions. Some crashes interacting with the back button on x86 tablets Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 and another one that would freeze the app when moving Firefox to background while playing a flash video in full screen mode and bringing it back to view.

You can now download Firefox Beta for Android 29 for free via Google Play Store. The application should be fully compatible with all devices powered by Android 2.2 and up.